COVID-19 Briefing - More than 200,000 meals served to Poplar Bluff kids

Since March 23, the team of Poplar Bluff R-1 School District, the Boys & Girls Club of Poplar Bluff and Chartwells have served more than 200,000 meals and counting.

Youth Development Professional Katy Townsend gets out of the rain in the back of a passenger van as she helps prepare meals to give to kids Wednesday morning. Since March 23, the team of the Boys & Girls Club of Poplar Bluff, the Poplar Bluff R-1 School District and Chartwells have served more than 200,000 meals to area kids.Photo provided

As of Monday, the total was 200,951 meals, said Chris Rushin, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club.

"We've had some of our staff members there every day and I can not praise them enough for their dedication to the mission, their professionalism and their bravery for doing what they are doing every single day," Rushin said. "We're right now, averaging right about 2,100 kids per day on average."

The past three weeks, about 50,000 meals were served each week, up dramatically from the 3,250 meals served in that first week.

Word of mouth quickly spread, and they served 36,786 meals the second week, more than 10-times as many, then 49,738 meals in week 3, a peak of 51,429 meals in week 4 and 48,351 meals in week 5.

Each kid in need is served breakfast, lunch and dinner. So if a parent says they've got three kids to feed, that's nine grab-and-go meals they'll pick up. On Fridays, you get meals for the weekend, so that's 27 meals picked up for those same three kids.

Cooking, packing, shipping and distributing all those meals involves a herculean effort from more than 50 people every single day, not to mention some creative packing in the delivery vehicles.

"There's crate after crate after crate of cartons of milk," Rushin said.

Thirty-eight people for Chartwells start those meals at 5:30 a.m. at three different locations in Poplar Bluff.

"At first it was kind of crazy, but it is running really smooth now," said Dixie Hardin, Chartwells Director of Dining Services. "They put a system in place where they try to stay ahead as much as possible"

The meals vary depending on the day. Chartwells has to follow guidelines, such as including certain food groups in a meal, but they've made barbecue chicken, spaghetti, chili, hamburgers, chicken nuggets and the list goes on. But instead of a cafeteria, they've got to pack all those individual meals, which takes time.

"It's not hard, it's just time-consuming and that's something they do not normally do," Hardin said.

They work throughout the week to get ahead of Friday, doing things like pre-packing items that don't need to be refrigerated.

"They definitely can not do it on Thursday for Friday. It is an all week long job," Hardin said.

Then seven 15-passenger vans, including two being loaned out by Larry Hillis, pick up those meals from the three sites and deliver them to individual distribution points. Nine school buses take meals to primarily rural students.

"We have about 12 Boys and Girls Club staff that have been out there every single day," Rushin said. "I'm just so appreciative of them and their efforts and holding up our mission for the welfare of our children."

That first week, two seats were removed from every van to fit the meals. Soon every seat had to be removed.

The meals will continue through the end of the official end of the school year, May 21. After this, the school district will shift into summer service. Superintendent Scott Dill said Monday that the locations and dynamics of serving food in the summer may change, but that the district will find a way to feed its kids.

Hardin said Chartwells has approval from the Department of Health and Senior Services to continue breakfast and lunch service until school starts back up. Dinner service goes through a different program within the Department of Health and Senior Services and she is currently waiting on information from them.